Mario Kart Live: Home Circuit has been besieged by cats

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Must. Swat. Mario.

(Image credit: Nintendo)

Mario Kart Live: Home Circuit, that new-fangled AR-enabled playset adaptation of the arcade racer, has just been released and it's already received a grim reminder: cats exist. 

As VG24/7 spotted, a short video from Japanese Twitter Yamanoneko_23 went viral, not because it shows how amazing Mario Kart Live can be, but because it highlights one of its critical design flaws: it's absolute cat bait. Is there anything more enticing than a delicate arrangement of plastic goalposts navigated by a small, swattable box that moves in bursts and makes noise? Coupled with the feline propensity to get caught doing disruptive nonsense on camera, Mario Kart Live is precision-engineered catnip. 

Yamanoneko_23 isn't alone, either. A simple Twitter search reveals heaps of players who've encountered similar furry obstacles, both feline and canine. Still, I think cats have the advantage here. After years of knocking things off shelves, hoarding obscure objects, and generally causing problems on purpose, they've got the expertise necessary to turn the release of Mario Kart Live into a veritable circus. We've no chance in this particular war, so we're probably better off treating them as bonus track hazards, sort of real-life Bullet Bill equivalents. You have to clear gaps and dodge traps in Mario Kart 8, so it's only fair that Mario Kart Live has some nearly unavoidable obstacles of its own. 

Mario Kart Live: Home Circuit is back in stock, but it won't be for long, so if you want to start building tracks anytime soon you may want to jump in now.

Austin Wood
Austin Wood
Senior writer

Austin has been a game journalist for 12 years, having freelanced for the likes of PC Gamer, Eurogamer, IGN, Sports Illustrated, and more while finishing his journalism degree. He's been with GamesRadar+ since 2019. They've yet to realize his position is a cover for his career-spanning Destiny column, and he's kept the ruse going with a lot of news and the occasional feature, all while playing as many roguelikes as possible.